Editing operations in a Digital Audio Workstation like Ardour can be broken down according to how many points on the timeline are required to carry the operation out. Splitting a region for example, requires just one position on the timeline (the one where the split will happen). Cutting out a time range requires two positions, one for the start of the cut and one for the end.
In Ardour the edit point is the location where most single-point editing operations take place. It can be set to either of the following:
The default edit point is the location of the pointer.
There are 2 keybindings available to cycle through the edit point options. The most common workflow tends to involve switching back and forth between the playhead and mouse as the edit point. Press the grave accent key ` to switch between these two. Use ` to cycle through all three choices (including the selected marker). You can also switch the edit point using a combo-selector just right of the snap/grid unit selector.
In addition to explicit range selections made with the Range tool, Ardour also provides an implicit edit range. This edit range can be very useful if you want to edit by ear, rather than by mouse. If neither a regions nor an explicit range is selected, then any editing operation that requires a range (such as "separate") will use the implicit edit range.
The implicit range is the area between the current edit point and some other position. In most cases it is either
Which of these is true depends on which edit point setting you are using (Mouse, Playhead or Marker) and whether there is a selected marker at that time.